Page 44 - Using MIS

12 Chapter 1 The Importance of MIS

If you are saying that, you are like a lamb headed for shearing. Throughout your career, in what-
ever field you choose, information systems will be built for your use, and sometimes under your
direction. To create an information system that meets your needs, you need to take an active role
in that system’s development. Even if you are not a programmer or a database designer or some
other IS professional, you must take an active role in specifying the system’s requirements and
in managing the system’s development project. You will also have an important role for testing
the new system. Without active involvement on your part, it will only be good luck that causes
the new system to meet your needs.
As a business professional, you are the person who understands business needs and re-
quirements. If you want to apply social networking to your products, you are the one who knows
how best to obtain customer responses. The technical people who build networks, the database
designers who create the database, the IT people who configure the computers—none of these
people know what is needed and whether the system you have is sufficient or whether it needs
Security is critically important to be adapted to new requirements. You do!
when using information systems In addition to management tasks, you will also have important roles to play in the use of
today. You’ll learn much more information systems. Of course, you will need to learn how to employ the system to accomplish
about it in Chapter 10. But your job tasks. But you will also have important ancillary functions as well. For example, when
you need to know about strong using an information system, you will have responsibilities for protecting the security of the
passwords and their use now,
before you get to that chapter. system and its data. You may also have tasks for backing up data. When the system fails (all do,
Read and follow the Security at some point), you will have tasks to perform while the system is down as well as tasks to ac-
Guide on pages 24–25. complish to help recover the system correctly and quickly.

Achieving Strategies

The last part of the definition of MIS is that information systems exist to help organizations
achieve their strategies. First, realize that this statement hides an important fact: Organizations
themselves do not “do” anything. An organization is not alive, and it cannot act. It is the people
within a business who sell, buy, design, produce, finance, market, account, and manage. So,
information systems exist to help people who work in an organization to achieve the strategies
of that business.
Information systems are not created for the sheer joy of exploring technology. They are
not created so the company can be “modern” or so the company can show it has a social
networking presence on the Web. They are not created because the information systems
department thinks it needs to be created or because the company is “falling behind the
technology curve.”
This point may seem so obvious that you might wonder why we mention it. Every day,
however, some business somewhere is developing an information system for the wrong
reasons. Right now, somewhere in the world, a company is deciding to create a Facebook
presence for the sole reason that “every other business has one.” This company is not asking
questions such as:

• “What is the purpose of our Facebook page?”
• “What is it going to do for us?”
• “What is our policy for employees’ contributions?”
• “What should we do about critical customer reviews?”
• “Are the costs of maintaining the page sufficiently offset by the benefits?”

For more information on how But that company should ask those questions! Chapter 3 addresses the relationship be-
an understanding of MIS can tween information systems and strategy in more depth. Chapter 8 addresses social media and
broaden your career options, see strategy specifically.
the Guide on pages 26–27.
Again, MIS is the development and use of information systems that help businesses achieve
their strategies. Already you should be realizing that there is much more to this class than buy-
ing a computer, working with a spreadsheet, or creating a Web page.